Stone fails to overturn murder conviction

Michael Stone, the man convicted of murdering Lin and Megan Russell, is likely to try to take his fight to clear his name to the House of Lords after the court of appeal yesterday rejected his claim that he was "fitted up".

Three appeal court judges threw out his argument that the cellblock confession which formed the basis of the case against him was made up by a heroin user trying to win favours from the prison authorities and the police.

Stone, 44, who is serving three life sentences for the hammer attack in 1996 on Mrs Russell and her daughters Megan and Josie, who survived, has been found guilty by two juries and his conviction upheld by three of the most senior judges in the UK.

But his legal team said that once they had studied the reasons why the appeal was dismissed, which will be given tomorrow, they would look at taking the case to the Lords.

Outside court, Stone's sister, Barbara, said there was "not a scrap of evidence" against him. She maintained he was in prison on the say-so of a convicted criminal, Damien Daley, who had "lied his way through two trials".

She said it was "unfortunate" if the legal process was causing distress to Josie, now a 17-year-old student, and Mrs Russell's widower, Shaun. "We are hoping to go to the House of Lords - the fight for justice goes on," she said.

In a statement Mr Russell sought to draw a line under the case, saying: "The justice system has taken its course and as far as I can see it has been fair to all parties. Josie and I have made an effort to put our memories of this terrible affair behind us, especially as nothing can bring back Josie's mother Lin and sister Megan."

Mrs Russell, 45, Megan, six, and Josie, then nine, were attacked as they walked through a cornfield to their home in Chillenden, near Canterbury, Kent.

There was no forensic evidence to link Stone, a local violent career criminal with a severe personality disorder who knew the area well, to the scene and no conclusive eyewitness evidence.

In 1998 he was convicted at Maidstone crown court, largely on the basis of alleged cellblock confessions made to Daley and two other prisoners and given three life sentences.

Within days, two of the prisoners were discredited, one admitting he had lied and a second conceding that he had received money from a newspaper.

Stone's conviction was quashed and a retrial ordered but in 2001 he was found guilty by a second jury at Nottingham crown court, mainly on Daley's evidence.

Daley, who has convictions for violent robbery and burglary, claimed Stone had confessed to the murders as they spoke together through a pipe connecting their cells in the segregation block at Canterbury prison.

Challenged about his drug-taking, Daley told the jury in Stone's first trial that he had never taken heroin; in the second trial he said he only used it occasionally.

This week Stone's team revealed that Daley had now admitted using heroin heavily since 1996 and so had perjured himself to two juries, making all of his evidence "inherently unreliable".

Edward Fitzgerald QC, for Stone, said Daley may have fabricated Stone's supposed confession to ingratiate himself with the authorities and get off the segregation wing.

He said there were no details of the attack in the "confession" which Daley could not have gleaned from media reports.

Mr Fitzgerald also argued clearer warnings should have been given to the jury in the second trial about the character of Daley, who is serving a four-year jail sentence for possessing heroin with intent to supply.

Nigel Sweeney QC, for the crown, argued that Daley had not been put forward as a man of good character: the jury knew he had previous convictions and was a drug user.

He also said Daley had nothing to gain from the authorities.

After the jury at his first trial had convicted him, a clearly anguished Stone had turned to the press bench and mouthed: "I didn't do it."

Yesterday as the judges dismissed his appeal he simply shrugged his shoulders at his sister, Barbara.

Not all residents of Chillenden were easy about yesterday's ruling.

Jerry Copestake, landlord of the Griffins Head pub, said: "Most people round here don't think he did it.